Somewhere That's Green
Somewhere That's Green, is a song written for the musical Little Shop of Horrors. About Audrey tells of her dream to leave Orin Scrivello, D.D.S, marry Seymour and live on "a little street in a little suburb," with luxuries she has never known on Skid Row, like a washer, a toaster, a "big, enormous" twelve inch television, and a kind, loving family. It is sung only once in the theatrical cut of the 1986 film, but at the end of both the stage musical and in the Director's Cut of the movie, the song has a final reprise. The movie's soundtrack album omits the 30-some-second orchestral interlude which plays while Audrey cavorts with an animated bird, hosts a Tupperware party and waters the flowers. Lyrics On desktop devices, click the tabs to navigate the variations of the lyrics. |-|1982 Off-Broadway= The is the version from the 1982 Off-Broadway album. |-|1986 Film Version= This is the version from the 1986 movie. |-|Director's Cut Reprise= This is the reprise which appeared in the Director's Cut. |-|Duet Version= This early draft of the song as a duet between Seymour and Audrey has a slightly different structure and is on record as part of The Howard Ashman papers at The Library of Congress. Ashman did not denote which character sang what lines (see image below), so the following transcription is an approximation. Trivia * In the original version of the song, Audrey sang, "The kids watch Howdy Doody as the sun sets in the West." From 1948-1956 the Howday Doody show aired on weekday afternoons,It’s Howdy Doody Time: What You Probably Don’t Know About the Iconic Children’s Show however, it switched exclusively to Saturday mornings in 1956, where it remained for the final four seasons, ultimately leaving the airwaves in September 1960,Total Television by Alex McNeil, Penguin Books a year or two before "Little Shop" was set. Presumably Howard Ashman discovered he'd made an anachronistic error, because by the first draft of the film screenplay in December 1983, the lyrics were suddenly changed to "The kids' room, next to our room / And a third room for a guest," and this remained unchanged throughout multiple revisions.Little Shop of Horrors Screenplay, February 14, 1985 Clearly he was unhappy with the new line, so the lyrics were modified to "The kids play Howdy Doody" in the final draft of the script, and the children in the film are shown playing with a Howdy Doody marionette. * Though cut from most drafts of the screenplay and the final film, an edited version of Audrey's "little dream of mine" monologue was included in the final draft of the screenplay (dated September 27, 1985) in which Audrey delivers it to her stuffed cocker-spaniel and "her goldfish which is swimming in a small bowl." The monologue was shot (sans the goldfish) and included in an early workprint, and in a later workprint of the original cut of the film (dated August 22, 1985). * While working on the Disney animated film The Little Mermaid," ''their follow-up to ''Little Shop, composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman noticed various structural and rhythmic similarities between'' Little Shop's "Somewhere That's Green" and The Little Mermaid's "Part of Your World," both the "I Want" song's for their respective works. As such, the two nicknamed "Part of Your World" "Somewhere That's Wet."Entertainment Weekly: Alan Menken tells stories behind 7 classic Disney songs **In Kerry Butler's recording of "Part of Your World," recorded in February 2003 as a demo for the stage adaptation to ''Mermaid which was still in early development, the idea was taken one step further, possibly by Menken himself. As Butler sings the final few lines ("Out of the sea / Wish I could be / Part of your sic world"), the pianist accompanying her begins playing the outro to "Somewhere That's Green."YouTube: Part of Your World - Kerry Butler - 2003 Rading Demo Sync - The Little Mermaid Butler would be cast as Audrey for Little Shop's original Broadway production later that year. Gallery Somewhere That's Green Photo.jpg|Audrey gazes out the window in her imagination. Little Shop of Horrors 1983 Ellen Greene, Leilani Jones, Jennifer Leigh Warren, Shelia Key Davis.jpg|Ellen Greene, Leilani Jones, Jennifer Leigh Warren & Shelia Key Davis Somewherethat'sgreendocument(Congress).jpg|Lyrics for an early, duet version of "Somewhere That's Green." From the Howard Ashman Papers, The Library Of Congress Recordings References Category:Little Shop Of Horrors Category:Songs Category:Musical Category:1986 movie